That's true that the definition of type ! is the lack of the pancreas to make insulin. But like all organs that aren't functioning right, there are degree's of how badly they are not functioning. My sisters have been going to Diabetes specialist their whole lives, and they are definitly Type 1, although they do not require insulin injections, just barely.
Type 1 and Type 2, although both called diabetes really are two different diseases. When they discovered Type 2 they probably should have called it something else to avoid confusion. Type 1 is the pancreas not putting out enough insulin to whatever degree. The complete definition doesn't require insulin injections for it to be type 1. Type 2 is insulin resistance, or ineffective insulin, or both. A person with type 2 that ends up progressing to needing insulin is either becoming more resistant, or the drugs are failing on them, which they will tend to do over time, or their insulin is becoming less effective, or they can actualy be progressing into a partial type 1 from the pancreas wearing down after years of cranking out high insulin levels.
Both girls had glucose tolerance test as children and both of them failed, but not to the point they had to take insulin. I am not even sure what year insulin even became available. Their pancreas were weak at making insulin. So they were diet controlled for years. One sister had to start on drugs to increase insulin output and sensitivity years ago, once they were finaly available, and the other still doesn't have to take drugs. She also has to take metmorphin on top of that because she has developed type 2 on top of type 1. The other sister did not. Her pancreas is still weak at insulin output, but not unable and does not have type 2 on top of the type 1.
Your definition is correct, but its a matter of degree between total and partial failure on the pancreas. I am not to sure that 50 years ago they even knew the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 or if there even was a Type 2 . The only test they ran for a definitive diagnoses was the Glucose tolerance test and there was guidelines for what normal was, and how far are you falling out of these guidelines decided if your DX was diabetic. Both sisters were tested as children and determined to be diabetic, and told that they would get worse as they got older. They didn't have much for treatment back then, no drugs to stimulate the pancreas to produce more insulin. They were both in the area that extreme diet control would work for now.
They are both type 1, but the pancreas is still partialy working, with one sister also developing farther into type 2. My brother that is type 2 is slowly progressing farther into type 1.
The sister that is type 1 only has had a very strict diet her entire life. She eats like a bird. A few times over the years, like at office parties she has slipped, ate a couple of
cookies, or a piece of cake and went to the Hospital where they had to give her insulin. Once, a small piece of chocolate cake sent her to the Hospital and she was in a coma she barely came back from. Her pancreas is working, just well enough that she can get by if she makes no mistakes at all.
But like I said, back when they were diagnosed, you were either diabetic or not diabetic. I don't think they had differentiated the two different diseases, or how much of their diabetis was the pancreas not working well, or how much was do to insulin resistance. Part of it could have been insulin resistance, or ineffective insulin, but at 10 and 15 years old, it definitly was not adult onset where the resistance, or ineffective insulin would have been from a lifetime of poor diet.
You can actualy see the borderline risk on me for Type 2. If I eat as I please, my fasting blood test at the Doctors will go over normal. I have a glucose meter I periodicaly use to see how high it will go depending on what I eat, and how fast it will drop to normal. If I eat stupidly, it will jump to about
275 by bedtime and still be around 160 by morning. Also, my A1C will go slightly into the high range after months of eating as I please. If I eat like I have some sense, the Glucose meter is reading normal ranges and responses all day and in the morning. And after months of eating with some sensibility, the A1C is in the normal range. It's all preaty handy, because it's very plainly warning me that I have gotten away with all I am going to get away with in this life.
What I wonder about
that though is the difference between my brother and sisters and me. Type 1 and type 2 diabetes is rampant in my family. But I am the only one that has taken allot of supplements most of his life that have been shown to have the side effect of decreasing insulin resistance. Magnesium is just one of them. That brings me back to my one sister that has been soaking in magnesium everyday for 30 years. She can be sent to the Hospital over a small piece of chocolate cake, and yet she has not developed any of the long list of health problems that diabetes can cause. That article I linked up above is preaty much saying just that. The magnesium seems to help protect people from these other health complications developing, and it seems to delay the onset of Type 2.
Post Edited (Grailhunter) : 12/15/2008 1:11:11 PM (GMT-7)